A sketchbook page with figure sketches, including a girl eating a slice of pizza. Piles of pens are laid next to the sketchbook on both sides.
Drawing,  Sketchbooks

More Gestural Sketches

Sunday, March 14, 2021 /

I suppose I apply a wide definition of what a gesture drawing is – if the spirit of the drawing is meant to be gestural, even if the end result becomes too detailed or tight, I think it still counts. While drawing these pages, I was thinking of the “not this / this” photo that is on Proko’s How to Draw Gesture guide. I agree that the action lines are the quintessential nature of a gesture drawing. I just don’t always accomplish them, hah.

Tonight’s drawing session started around 8pm, with minor interruptions. I tried watching the rest of Captain American, but it was really hard to watch and draw to: action sequences are super distracting, it turns out! I ended rewinding and watching a good 30 minutes after the drawing session, then finally finished watching the whole movie. Success!

These sketches were studied from Pexels CCO photos, sources in the captions.

A sketchbook page showing five figure sketches - a woman drinking water, a woman eating pizza, and three women posing while standing.
Reference photo sources, from top left and going clock wise: one, two, three, four, five.
A sketchbook page with five figure sketches on it, drawn in grey fine liner with purple highlighter shadows.
Reference photo sources, from top left and going clock wise: one, two, three, four, five.

Part of me feels like I’m wasting the mixed media paper if I’m using such light mediums that only have minor bleed through on regular paper. Maybe tomorrow I’ll go back to watercolor. But I’m also trying to let myself feel free to try any medium I want.

I’m thinking I want to do some eye studies next – I really liked how the face of the girl eating pizza turned out, in large part because of how the eyes look. We shall see what tomorrow’s practice brings. ^_^

‘Til next time.

Listening to: Deliver Me, Catie Curtis
Current mood: sleepy

I'm an illustrator and web developer honing my skills and learning all I can about drawing, painting, and storytelling through visual art.

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